


Kogane, you're an asshole

by tafih



Series: The Amue Universe [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Galra Keith (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), Other, POV Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 00:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9467438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tafih/pseuds/tafih
Summary: Keith overhears a conversation between a Kogane and a Shirogane – with some Korean swears here and there.





	

_Kogane, you’re an asshole._

 

Keith blinked as he heard those words echo through the hallway. The small child was walking to the dim yellow light of the far-off kitchen to get a cup of water when he heard the voices of his father and his father’s cousin. Keith was told just to call her “E-mo”.

“Wow, it’s been a while since you called me an asshole,” his father’s voice chuckled out into the night-veiled hallway and into Keith’s ears.

Keith quietly stamped his small back onto the wall by the cracked door and slid down to the floor. The child did not want to disturb.

His aunt spoke again, “Because I thought that settling down and having Keith made you less of an asshole but it didn’t.

“ _Min_ ,”

“No, don’t try to scuttle your way into an excuse. You just don’t want the responsibility of raising a child.”

“I have to find her.”

“She’s not _from_ here, Kevin. You should have known that she would leave.”

“That doesn’t change anything.”

“So what? You’re going to crawl back to that stupid shack in the middle of the desert and tinker with machinery from God knows where?”

“I might end up there. But there’s the whole rest of the planet to consider.”

Keith noticed his eyes had gotten used to the darkness and looked down at the buttons of his pajamas. He grabbed one in his small, deft hands. He began to count them – _one, two, three, four, five…_

“I cannot believe you.” Keith’s aunt growled in disbelief. “He’s only five.”

“He’ll be better off with you than with me.”

“Oh, I _know_ but he still needs his father.”

“Doesn’t Takashi and Ryo?”

“They see him whenever they want. But we’re talking about Keith and _his father._ Will that boy ever see his father? That’s my question.”

Then his father chuckled his warm, drawling laugh. “Wouldn’t it be better if the kid saw less of an asshole?”

“Dammit, Kogane.”

A pause. 

“I’ll send money.”

“I don’t want your money.”

“Then what can I say to make this easier?”

“How is any of this easy? You’re leaving your kid with me and taking one of mine.”

“Ryo has a gift for these kinds of things and she was close with his mother.”

“I don’t care. She’s only _fourteen_. I won’t let you take her on this stupid alien-obsessed escapade.”

“Holgersson said it was fine.”

“Do _not_ bring him up again. This is not about him.”

“No, I think it is,” Kogane countered, slowly, menacingly. Keith heard the creak of a chair grating against the floor. “You’re projecting all of your frustrations that built up from having kids with a _drug addict_ and you’re putting it on me. I’m not Soren.”

Min swore in Korean and something crashed to the ground. Keith jolted and shivered at the sharp, jarring sound. He remembered his father jokingly saying that Shirogane temper came from the Lee side of the family.

Kevin huffed through clenched teeth then laughed, somewhat condescendingly. “Aw, I liked that cup.”

Keith never liked when his father laughed like that.

“Shut up. How fucking low are you?”

Another pause.

“I’m leaving tonight, Min. You can’t stop me.” Some rustling filters out. “And I don’t think you can stop Ryoko. She’ll find me.”

Footsteps.

“Keh-Seki,” she spat. 

“I love you too,” Kevin laughed. The entrance to the outside whirs, signaling its opening into the cool desert night air. “And I do love him, Min, I hope you can understand that.”

“All _he’ll_ understand is that his father left him with a cousin barely related to him.”

“He deserves to know where he came from.”

“He doesn’t need to. He has _me_ ; he has a family here. He has a future away from those people.” She sounded desperate.

“We all want answers, Min.”

Aunt Min sighed out and seethed, “Kogane, you’re an asshole.”

* * *

When his father marched out from the backdoor from the kitchen, Keith peeked in just to confirm that his aunt was the only one left. He saw her clutch her face in her hand.

He turned and tiptoed into the carpet with small, soft steps - back up the house stairs to the open door of a bedroom.

Keith felt his way to the bed he was sharing with Takashi and clambered up.

The teenager stirred. “Keith? You okay? Did you have to go to the bathroom?”

The child buried his cheek into a pillow and shook his head.

“Are you crying?”

Keith had shut his eyes so all he could sense was Takashi’s concerned voice in the darkness. Maybe he was crying. 

His body cringed into itself – his eyes, his lips into his teeth, his shoulders into his chest, his knees to his stomach.

He laid there, cringing until sleep took him in its sometimes-gentle grip.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I literally wrote this in an hour and a half - but it is the brainchild of constant hypotheticals and headcanons since binge-watching Season 2 at 4 in the morning on the 20th.  
> I imagined Keith's dad to be the Voltron equivalent to Hohenheim from FMA and I just went with it. I don't remember where I got the name for "Kevin" for Keith's dad but it was on Tumblr and I'm sorry for using it! Lots of references to the old series and I'm hoping to do some comics too - we'll see! This semester is kicking my butt! Oh, and Min calls Keith's dad a bastard in Korean. If you wanted to know :P


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